Olympiacos decisions taken on squad as Luis Palma set for Celtic return

José Luis Mendilibar, the Olympiacos who signed Palma on loan from Celtic in the January transfer window in a deal that included a £3.5m option to buy this summer, has now indicated that the Honduran winger will return to Celtic this summer rather than sign a permanent deal with his club.

A hat-trick in friendly against Sligo Rovers the only highlight 

Palma managed just one league start in a competitive match at Celtic in his second season at the club but did net a hat-trick in Ireland doing a friendly against Sligo Rovers last October.

Brendan Rodgers appeared to lose faith in the player who continually failed to make an impression coming from the bench. Having arrived at Celtic from Greek football, it seemed that a move to title chasing Olympiacos would be an ideal solution playing in a country and conditions perhaps more suited to Palma.

Palma has failed to make an impact at Olympiacos

However the same problems seem to be dogging Palma in Greece with him managing just two starts for Olympiacos and scoring just the one goal. Palma has managed just 18 minutes in the title run-in and didn’t feature at all in the crucial title deciding match with main rivals AEK Athens.

Mendilibar has outlined his position on his squad for next season as he eyes progress in the Champions League.

“I have already made my decisions about the players who will stay and who will go at the end of the season. And it will be very difficult for them to change my mind in the remaining games of the season,” Glasgow Times reports.

So it looks like the Olympiacos manager’s mind is made up and for Luis Palma that means heading back to Glasgow to look at working his way back into Brendan Rodgers’ plans, although he too may have made his mind up. With three years left on his contract that transfer window of the summer of 2023 is proving to be problematic and costly for the club.

Hopefully Luis Palma’s agent will be working his contacts book vigorously over the next month or so looking to get the Honduran a move.

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